Systems, apparatuses and methods for enhancing winning result opportunities in poker gaming activities. Embodiments involve identifying award-enhancing opportunities using dice to determine award-enhancing opportunities based on the dice results for a poker game played on a gaming device. Award-enhancing opportunities can be accumulated during multiple bonus rounds, or single bonus rolls of dice may be used to determine multipliers or other modifiers to enhance awards received in the poker games.
Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
1. A gaming device comprising: a display; a user interface; a memory configured to store a credit amount; a wager acceptor structured to receive physical currency or physical currency based tickets; and a processor operable to: receive a signal from the wager acceptor indicating receipt of physical currency or physical currency based tickets; increase the credit amount in memory based upon the received signal from the wager; receive a signal on the gaming device to initiate a poker game having a predefined number of card positions associated with a poker hand, the signal indicating a wager amount, where the credit amount is reduced by the wager amount; determine if a dice feature is randomly triggered after the signal is received to initiate the poker game, and prior to displaying the poker hand of the poker game, where the determination of whether the dice feature is randomly triggered is independent of the poker hand; randomly roll at least one die to generate a bonus multiplier prior to displaying the poker hand of the poker game when the dice feature is randomly triggered, wherein randomly rolling at least one die to generate a bonus multiplier includes: rolling the at least one die in a first round of the dice feature; determining a first round multiplier based on a value shown on a face of the at least one die rolled in the first round of the dice feature; determining if a terminating event has occurred in the first round of the dice feature; when a terminating event has not occurred in the first round of the dice feature, initiating subsequent rounds of the dice feature to determine subsequent round multipliers until the terminating event has occurred after a round of the dice feature; and aggregating the first round multiplier with any determined subsequent round multipliers to generate the bonus multiplier; select a plurality of cards to present in the card positions of the poker game; evaluate the poker hand to determine awards associated with the poker hand; multiply any determined awards associated with the poker hand by the bonus multiplier if the dice feature has been randomly triggered; and increase the credit amount in memory based on the awards.
2. The gaming device of claim 1 , wherein the bonus multiplier is generated by setting the value of the multiplier to a value shown on a face of the die after rolling.
3. The gaming device of claim 1 , wherein a plurality of dice are used in the dice feature, and wherein bonus multiplier is generated by summing values shown on faces of the dice after rolling.
4. The gaming device of claim 1 , wherein the bonus multiplier is generated by ascertaining a predefined multiplier value from a table based on a value shown on a face of the at least one die after rolling.
5. The gaming device of claim 1 , further comprising awarding a consolation prize when a dice feature is triggered and the evaluated poker hand is not associated with any awards.
6. The gaming device of claim 5 , wherein the consolation prize is an award equal to the value of the bonus multiplier.
7. The gaming device of claim 5 , wherein the consolation prize is a predefined award.
8. The gaming device of claim 1 , wherein two dice are used in the dice feature, and wherein the terminating event occurs when the values shown on the faces of the two dice after the first round of the dice feature or after a subsequent round of the dice feature have a sum of 7.
9. A gaming device comprising: a display; a user interface; a memory configured to store a credit amount; a wager acceptor structured to receive physical currency or physical currency based tickets; and a processor operable to: receive a signal from the wager acceptor indicating receipt of physical currency or physical currency based tickets; increase the credit amount in memory based upon the received signal from the wager acceptor; receive a signal on the gaming device to initiate a draw poker game having a predefined number of card positions associated with a poker hand, the signal indicating a wager amount, where the credit amount is reduced by the wager amount; determine if a first dice feature is randomly triggered prior to displaying a dealt poker hand of the draw poker game, where the determination of whether the dice feature is randomly triggered is independent of the dealt poker hand; randomly roll at least one die to generate a first bonus multiplier prior to displaying the dealt poker hand of the draw poker game when the first dice feature is randomly triggered; select a plurality of cards to present in the card positions of the draw poker game as the dealt poker hand; hold any cards in the dealt poker hand as indicated by signals received from the user interface; receive a signal from the user interface indicating a draw request; determine if a second dice feature is randomly triggered prior to displaying replacement cards for any cards not held in the dealt poker hand, where the determination of whether the second dice feature is randomly triggered is independent of the dealt poker hand and the replacement cards; randomly roll at least one die to generate a second bonus multiplier prior to displaying replacement cards for the dealt poker hand of the draw poker game when the second dice feature is randomly triggered; select replacement cards to replace any cards not held in the dealt poker hand to generate a final poker hand; evaluate the final poker hand to determine awards associated with the final poker hand; determine a final bonus multiplier from the first bonus multiplier and the second bonus multiplier; multiply any determined awards associated with the final poker hand by the final bonus multiplier if the first dice feature or second dice feature has been randomly triggered; and increase the credit amount in memory based on the awards.
10. The gaming device of claim 9 , where each of the first dice feature and second dice feature include rolling two dice.
11. The gaming device of claim 10 , wherein the first bonus multiplier is generated by summing values shown on faces of the two rolled dice in the first dice feature; and wherein the second bonus multiplier is generated by summing values shown on faces of the two rolled dice in the second dice feature.
12. The gaming device of claim 9 , wherein in the final multiplier is determined by taking a higher value between the first bonus multiplier and the second bonus multiplier.
13. The gaming device of claim 9 , wherein in the final multiplier is determined by aggregating the first bonus multiplier with the second bonus multiplier.
14. The gaming device of claim 9 , further comprising awarding a consolation prize when a first dice feature is triggered or a second dice feature is triggered, and the evaluated final poker hand is not associated with any awards.
15. The gaming device of claim 14 , wherein the consolation prize is an award equal to an aggregate value of the first bonus multiplier and the second bonus multiplier.
16. The gaming device of claim 14 , wherein the consolation prize is a predefined award.
17. A gaming device comprising: a display; a user interface; a memory configured to store a credit amount; a wager acceptor structured to receive physical currency or physical currency based tickets; and a processor operable to: receive a signal from the wager acceptor indicating receipt of physical currency or physical currency based tickets; increase the credit amount in memory based upon the received signal from the wager acceptor; receive a signal on the gaming device to initiate a first poker game having a predefined number of card positions associated with a first poker hand, the signal indicating a wager amount, where the credit amount is reduced by the wager amount; select a plurality of cards to present in the card positions of the first poker game; evaluate the first poker hand to determine first awards associated with the first poker hand; increase the credit amount in memory based on the first awards; determine if a dice feature is triggered based on the first poker game; randomly roll at least one die to generate a first bonus multiplier; receive a signal on the gaming device to initiate a second poker game, the signal indicating a wager amount, where the credit amount is reduced by the wager amount; select a plurality of cards to present in the card positions of the second poker game to form a second poker hand; evaluate the second poker hand to determine second awards associated with the second poker hand; multiply the second awards with the first bonus multiplier; increase the credit amount in memory based on the multiplied second awards; determine if a bonus terminating event has occurred; and randomly roll the at least one die to generate a second bonus multiplier to be used with a third poker game when a bonus terminating event has not occurred.
18. The gaming device of claim 17 , wherein the bonus terminating event occurs when a predetermined number is rolled on the at least one die.
19. The gaming device of claim 17 , wherein the dice feature is triggered when a random symbol appears on a card in the first poker.
Cooperative Patent Classification codes for this invention. Click any code to explore related patents in that topic.
July 9, 2013
February 21, 2017
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